Reckoning
by Tachande
Summary: Three friends: Danny, Eric, Dustin, find themselves face to face with the living dead. Disclaimer: All characters in story and personaljties in story are mine. All music, brand, movies etc... belong to there companies.
1. The dead walk!

Eric stood up from the air mattress "isn't there any other game besides Halo 2 that we could play, I mean we've been playing this game for hours man aren't you bored with it?"

Danny put down his Xbox controller and turned off the Xbox "yeah, now that you mention it. Hey wanna watch Land of the Dead?"

Eric shook his head "nah, remember we watched that a few hours ago?"

"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot. How about the new version of Dawn of the dead? I don't think you've seen that movie yet." Danny said.

"Sure, lets watch it," Eric said. Danny stood up to search for the DVD atop his TV stand "did you see where I put the DVD?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, it is by Land of the dead remember." Eric said with a grin. "Shut up," said Danny pulling the DVD down and putting the disc in his playstation 2 " I would have found it you know."

"I know, but I didn't want to wait and besides its not like you didn't know where it was anyway, all you do is watch those damn zombie movies" said Eric with a shake of his head; "hey those are some good movies," Danny said to Eric with a serious look.

"I agree but I mean come on you have all the zombie movies ever made in DVD and VHS," said Eric. "So, you have all the matrix movies," said Danny. Laughing Eric says, "Ok, were even." Laughing Danny and Eric sit on the edge of Danny's air mattress and start to watch Dawn of the dead.

Twenty minutes go by when Danny's mom, Marla, yells.

Danny jumps up from the mattress and charges out of the room "Mom, what's wrong?"

Eric jumps up and runs after Danny "dude what's wrong?" Danny turns to Eric, his face pale, "Dude, remember when I said someday there would be something that made zombies?" With a chuckle Eric nods " yeah, but that was all a bunch of bullshit too."

"Not anymore," Danny said "Look at the TV and see for yourself." Eric looks at the TV and his face goes pale "Holyshit!" yelled Eric "What the fuck happened?"

Marla looks to Eric "I don't know what happened, I was watching Judge Judy when all channels were turned to a presidential announcement. President Bush came on and told all of America that the dead were coming back to life to kill and eat the living."

Danny laughs and shakes his head "damn, this is like a fuckin movie." Eric looks to Danny and sees the glint in his eyes "Oh you can't be serious."

Marla looks at both of them "what are you talking about Eric?" Eric looks to Marla " Danny said that if anything like this were to happen we would go out hunting." Marla turns white " Danny there is no way in hell you and Eric are going "hunting" for them," pointing to the screen " they would kill you in an instant."

Danny shakes his head " Don't worry mom I wont." Danny walks down the hallway back to his room and closes the door. Eric and Marla listen and hear Disturbed's song 'Guarded' playing very loudly.

"What the hell were you talking about Eric, about hunting zombies and all?" Eric looks from the TV to Marla " me and Danny always talked that if this ever happened we would get our families and fort up or we would get ready for a fight." Marla goes double white and starts crying "oh god! Danny's father is still at work." Eric turns to walk down the hall back to Danny's room "Ill tell him."

Eric opens the door to Danny's room "so what's the plan?" Danny looks up from tying his boots "get that battle-axe off my wall and all the swords, were going to go get my father and your family."

Eric grins, "just like we planned huh?" Danny nods "Hell yeah, the only part of this that is disturbing is that this is real-life not just some teenagers daydreams."

Eric nods "yeah, at least we have weapons until we make it to a gun store." Danny laughs "yeah, but I still get my battle-axe."


	2. The library

Danny stands up and walks over beside the bed to a battle-axe hanging on his wall, "I remember when I bought this, Jay told me that his father was trying to sell it so I begged my parents to let me buy it and they let me."

Eric picks up two swords from the wall also," Do you think we will make it?" Danny looks Eric dead in the eye " I don't know Eric, I really don't know." Danny reaches down and picks up an eight-inch knife he laid on his dresser " Lets make a vow now, if one of us dies we continue to fight our way until the very end."

Eric turns to Danny and extends his hand " I couldn't ask for anything else." Disturbed blaring on Danny's radio Danny takes up the four knives, a sword, and his battle-axe and turns to Eric " I suggest you start praying now cause there wont be much of a chance when we get out of this house."

Marla stands up from her chair and walks down the hall to Danny's room and puts her ear to the door "The first thing we need to do is get down to your house and pick up your family and drop them off here," Danny says. "Once we get them we'll see if Chris will join us and if he does or if he doesn't we will go and find my father."

Marla slowly opens the door "I knew you would be this way when you were little," she says, tears running freely down here care-worn face, " a natural leader and survivor." Danny turns to Marla "I know you will be alright here mom; here take this short-sword, if any of the zombies try to bust in remember swipe for there heads and they will die."

Danny looks out the front window to see if any of the zombies are out there; "I don't see any wandering the streets," Danny says; Eric looks around and walks to stand next to Danny "Yeah, that's how it is in the movies; you get outside and wham! They appear like the plague."

Danny and Eric walk outside and peer down the street and see a few people shuffling across the street "do you think there living or dead?" Eric says to Danny " I can't tell from this distance but id best not take any chances," says Danny. Jumping off the porch Eric and Danny take off running down the backyard peering left and right.

Danny sees out of the corner of his eye movement " Whoa, Eric stop." Eric stops and gulps air in "what..have..you seen?" says Eric "Movement there by the end of the fence." Sure enough one of Danny's neighbors turn the corner of the fence. "Holyshit!" both say in unison. The neighbor's stomach was gone, parts of entrails were hanging down the front of his legs, blood pouring out of him with every step.

Danny shakes his head " I figured I would have to kill one eventually:" he says and charges at the zombie battle-axe overhead. Running up to the zombie Danny moves his battle-axe to a baseball swing position ready to decapitate the zombie. A huge rush of cold blood fountained out of the stump of the neck of the, now dead, zombie. Danny bends down and cleans his battle-axe blade on the clothes of the zombie and turns to see Eric empty the contents of his stomach all over the lawn "oh toughen up Eric you will have to do this eventually you know," says Danny with a serious look in his eyes. "I know, its just didn't think it would be this bloody," said Eric wiping the vomit from the corner of his mouth.

Danny and Eric continue towards Eric's house, coming to a library parking lot Danny walks over to the window " Dude, you cant be wanting to go into the library now," says Eric Danny shakes his head "No but there could be living people hiding in there," says Danny. "Oh sorry didn't think about that," said Eric. Looking through the glass Danny sees someone duck behind the main desk, "Dude there is someone in there," said Danny "living or dead?" said Eric. "Living enough to duck out of site," said Danny.

Tugging on the front doors of the library Danny finds that they are locked "Damn, I knew it wouldn't be that easy now would it." Eric peers into the window" hey I see someone else in there too." "What two people?" said Danny "yeah," said Eric "Danny bust the glass, the other person is undead." Danny nods and swings his battle-axe at the glass door, small fragments of glass clatter to the pavement. Danny and Eric walk through the opening and sniff the air "aw man what is that smell?" says Eric Danny sniffs the air again "blood, that is the smell of blood," says Danny with a disgusted look on his face.

'How the hell would you know that," Eric says "remember I lived on a farm for four years, I know what blood smell like when its freshly spilled," said Danny "We had a cow torn apart by a coyote once, the stench then was unbearable , but I never forgot it." Danny walks past Eric and looks around and shouts " Is there anyone in here?" From behind the main desk to his left a man stands up "Yeah I am." Both Danny and Eric jump; Danny walks up to the man to get a closer look at him "Dustin, what the hell are you doing here?" Dustin looks at Danny "Danny? I was at the computers when people started running and screaming, next thing I knew I was facing a dead man." "You mean a zombie?" says Danny "so that's what they are," says Dustin "Well anyway, I saw the zombie and turned and ran." "Good decision, weaponless he might have bitten or killed you.:"

Eric walks past Dustin and Danny and peer down the library " guys the dead guy is walking towards us."

Danny and Dustin walk beside Eric and Danny nudges him "well why are you standing there for, kill the poor bastard." Eric nods and slowly walks toward the zombie "Sorry whoever you are." With a swipe of his sword Eric beheads the zombie, blood fountains out of the headless corpse and splatters off the walls and ceiling.

Both Eric and Dustin's face turn green, Dustin looks at Danny" why are you so calm?" Eric turns to Danny and walks towards him "why don't you get sick at the sight of blood and these corpses?" Danny looks from Dustin to Eric "to answer your questions plainly, I don't fear the dead or get repulsed by the site of mangled corpses and such." Both look at him and say in unison " and what makes you immune to them."

Danny shrugs "two reasons, one I'm a writer and have written and described worse, two I have seen all the zombie flicks made and seen it all from them and don't get freaked out by the site of the dead."

Dustin looks to Eric "well that settles it," Eric looks at Dustin "settles what?" "It settles who I'm following." Eric nods "yeah, safe to say ill stick with Danny." Danny laughs " thank you both for being my friends cause I seriously don't think I could have done any of this by myself." Dustin and Eric grin "were just damn lucky that we have a friend like you man." Nodding Danny turns back to the door "we should be heading off now to your house Eric before the zombies beat us to it. Eric nods " yeah, man I can't wait to see my family now." Danny turns and walks to Dustin and hands him a short-sword from its scabbard "here you'll need a weapon." Dustin takes the sword "thanks." Turning back to the door Danny, Eric and Dustin walk to the door "now this is going to get hard," says Danny. "What do you mean?" said Dustin "well for one we have yet been able to find any guns and another is that we don't even know if Eric's family is at his house," says Danny "but oh well, we can make it."


	3. The family upon the hill

Danny, Eric, and Dustin set off from the deserted library at a speedy pace. Danny looks back to the others "if you see anything or hear anything tell me," both of them nod and continue to look left and right.

Walking down the sidewalk they come to a four-way intersection, "hey Eric, which way to your house?" says Dustin. Looking down one street Eric looks at Dustin "see that road that branches up hill, at the top of that hill is my house." Pointing uphill Eric starts walking up the hill, "Eric do you have your cell phone on you?" asked Danny. Eric reaches into his pocket and retrieves his cell phone "yeah." Danny walks to Eric and opens his cell phone "try to call up to your house to see if your family is there."

Eric nods and opens his cell phone, ringing. Someone picks up on the other end "Hello?"

Eric puts the cell phone to his ear "Mom, are you guys all right?" On the other end a crashing sound erupts from the receiver and someone screams. Eric's face turns white and he yells into the cell phone "Mom hold on were coming!" Before Danny or Dustin can stop him Eric charges up the hill in a dead run.

Danny and Dustin run after Eric with their hands on their weapons "Do you think that they are ok," says Dustin. Danny shakes his head "from the sound of that breaking glass and screams I think that whoever is at that house now is undead or dying." Dustin nods and keeps on running all out.

Eric was the first to reach the house, blood cover the white car in the driveway and pooled in certain areas. Eric rips open the door "Mom, where are you!" Dustin and Danny stand behind Eric. Danny puts his hand on Eric's shoulder "Hey you wont like what your about to see," Eric looks at Danny "chances are Eric, that your mom and other family are dead." Pointing down at the blood in the driveway and on the steps "it looks like a lot of zombies broke into the house here and are still inside man, don't go in there."

Out of nowhere Eric's fist makes contact with Danny's jaw knocking him off the steps and onto the car. Rubbing his jaw Danny looks up at Eric "I'm just trying to warn you man, that's all." Rage burning in his heart, Eric walks into the house and walks down the hall peering left and right "Mom where are you?" In answer to Eric's call, his mom walks out of the back room.

Outside Danny and Dustin look at the door "you didn't have to say that," said Dustin "I know I just had to warn him for what he's about to face," said Danny. Just as Danny finishes his sentence both Danny and Dustin hear Eric yell "NOOOO." Shaking his head Danny grabs his battle-axe and walks into the house.

Eric looks at the zombie of his mother and breaks down into tears. Rocking back and forth Eric shakes his head screaming "No." Danny walks down the hallway and looks at the zombie and then down at Eric "you know what you have to do Eric, end her pain."

Eric looks up at Danny with tears rolling down his face "No, she's my mom, I wont to it," says Eric. Bending down Danny looks Eric square in the eye "if you don't do this your grief and guilt will kill you." Eric wouldn't do it.

Danny stands and hefts his battle-axe into his hands "You'll hate me for this Eric but it must be done." Walking up to the zombie Danny looks past the zombie into the room "oh god, Dustin get in here!"

The room was awash in blood; eight zombies huddled in corners feasting on what was left of Eric's family. "Dustin!"

Dustin hears Danny's call and runs into the house. Danny takes a few steps away from the approaching zombie and looks at Dustin "get Eric out of this house," Dustin looks at Danny perplexed "what's in the room?" Danny shakes his head "Its in your best interest not to know, now get him and yourself the hell out of here and wait for me outside I will be there in a few minutes.

Danny watches Dustin help, the still crying, Eric up and walk with him out the door.

Danny looks at the zombie of Eric's mom and says to her "I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do." With a swipe of his axe Danny decapitates the zombie and kicks her corpse out of his way and walks into the room. Looking about Danny counts not eight but five zombies and starts hacking away at the undead.

Dustin shoulders Eric's weight "they will live on Eric, remember that, they will live on lovingly in your memory." Eric wipes the snot and tears from his face and looks at Dustin "there dead, all of them, my mom, my brothers, there all dead." Dustin continued to talk to Eric as a bloody figure emerged from the door. At first Dustin though it was a zombie then he noticed the battle-axe and said, "is it done?"

Danny leans in the doorway "yes, it is done." Without saying much Danny walks over to the shed by Eric's house and retrieves a gas can from it. "Eric will come to hate me for what I did," Danny said as he pored the gas onto the house "I will have to live with that, yet his pain will continue to be worse." Dustin stands up and walks next to Danny "what do you mean?" Danny stops pouring the gas and looks at Dustin "his little brother was alive, half-eaten he was still breathing and crying; I will never forget his face as I raised my axe, Eric shall not know of this, ok?" Dustin looked at Danny in horror and shock "he will not know, just tell me one thing if I get bitten will you end my life without a second thought?" Danny looks at Dustin "pray it wont ever come to that, but if you are bitten I swear to you that I wont let you be one of those damn things."

With a nod Dustin walks back to Eric and Danny continues to pour gas inside the house now. Danny looks down at the bodies of the zombies and the rest of Eric's family "I'm sorry this had to happen to you." Pouring a trail of gas down the driveway Danny handed the lighter to Eric "its best if you do it."

With a strangled cry Eric threw the lit lighter onto the gas and watched the only house he ever knew burst into flame "where will we go now?" asked Eric. Danny turns back to look down the street "back to my house, from there we will try to contact my father and Dustin's family." Without much talking all three made it back to Danny's house.


	4. Decisions for survival

"Death now surrounds us all," says danny as they pass what looked to be a burnt corpse on the side of the road. "Once we where an ignorant and self-centered populace, now what are we?" Kneeling down danny looks into the remnants of a burnt out car "looks like whoever was in here is either undead or was burned alive." Dustin looks around as they turn the corner, heading back to danny's house, "how are we going to survive danny?" "I mean we have next to no food, no guns, and a hell of a lot of zombies between us and wherever the hell we are heading after your place."

Grabbing his battle-axe from his back danny turns to look at both of them "we have these," he said as he showed them the axe and swords they carried "these we can use, as for food and shelter we will have to crash at my place for a bit to get our bearings and let eric sort out his thoughts." Dustin looks over at the haggard face of a friend who once knew happiness and joy, now all the face showed was a great sadness and misery. "Hang in there eric," putting his arm around eric "I don't know how bad you are hurt emotionally but you need to hang in there man; I mean lets face it, it will be a hell of a lot harder without a third set of eyes to keep watch you know."

With a pitiful look on his face eric nods, with a voice husky from crying, eric blurts out "but what's left for me?" "My entire damn family was killed man, I have absolutely nothing else to live for. Danny gives a slight grin, making dustin grimace at the image, "listen to yourself, you've given up," with a look of sorrow now on his face danny walks up to eric and lifts his face up to his "you once said that no matter what happens you would always keep fighting, onto pain of death you wouldn't let go now all you will say is were doomed." Eric looks into danny's eyes; Danny sees the fire coming back in the depths of Eric's. Extending his hand to eric danny grins "nice to have you back in this hell hole of a world eric."

With a grin on his own face eric takes danny's hand "good to be back." Dustin looks at danny and eric "we should be leaving now danny, no telling what the hell is happening at your place." Danny's face darkens "yeah, we should get back." With that the three continue to walk down the deserted road. "Eric watch out!" dustin yells as a rotting zombie emerges from a burnt car. Eric turns as the zombie attempts to bite him on the shoulder; Eric kicks the zombie back into the car and hacks off one of the zombies decomposing arm, with a howl of rage and anguish eric yells "you son of a bitch!" and begins to hack at the zombie mindlessly. Bits of rotting flesh and blood rain all around eric and the others, danny walks over to eric and lays his hand on his shoulder "eric enough, its dead." Blood dripping from his face he turns to danny and dustin "taught that motherfucker not to jump at me," said eric, with a wolfish grin on his face, as he wipes the blood of his face with the hem of his T-shirt. Danny grins and turns around to look at dustin "it seems we got the old eric back now doesn't it?" With a grim nod dustin leans closer to danny "is he himself or has it gotten to him," he whispers. "I don't know, but whatever he is we will need him later." At this they both nod and as eric walks up to them they turn the corner and walk into danny's backyard.

Danny in front dustin looks to his left and asks eric "so what will you do when this nightmare is over." Eric looks at dustin and shrugs "I don't even know if I will survive this nightmare so as of now I don't, danny what's wrong?" Before dustin notices he walks right into danny. Walking next to danny dustin looks at the blood covered door and turns to eric "the damn zombies got in." Without warning a zombie launches itself from the front door. Danny howls with rage and swings with his axe, and misses!

Dustin jumps back as the zombie and danny fall to the gravel driveway. Danny roars and twists the zombies head a full 360 degrees around. With a gut wrenching crunch the zombies head twists around and bones and coagulated blood pop out of the twisted mass of flesh once known as a neck. Eric and dustin rush over to the corpse fearing the worse. With a grunt of effort danny throws the lifeless corpse of him and stands up, covered in blood yet again danny looks as if he was a demon straight from hell. Bending down danny grabs his battle-axe and rushes into the house yelling to see if his family is there. Following danny, dustin and eric look around at the blood covered floor and walls "god, there must have been dozens of them." Rotting corpses litter the floor, dodging the pools of coagulated blood dustin and eric follow danny deeper into his house. Looking into his parent's bedroom danny sees a corpse face down on the bed. Slowly edging over to the bed danny carefully turns the corpse over to reveal the face of a long-since-dead corpse of a female zombie.

Protruding from the corpse is the dagger danny gave his mother "she's still alive,"said danny as he yanks the dagger out of the corpse. "If she is still alive that means that she had to leave this house with someone, i'm sure she couldn't have killed all these zombies and escaped just by herself," said dustin motioning with his arm to the dozens of corpses littering the floor "which means someone is watching and protecting her," said danny with a great sigh of relief. "What will we do now danny," said eric as he entered the bedroom, danny reaches down and grabs a photo of him and his mom and dad from an antique dresser, "we will head out, this place is not fortifiable so any suggestions would be helpful."

"Well first of all we need to get guns, I mean no offense or anything to the swords and stuff but what will happen when we have to face ten or twenty of them at once," said eric. Dustin nods and walks over to eric "your right, after that though what place would be a good place to hold up in." "We could go to a mall," said danny with a rueful grin on his face. Eric and dustin grin but shake their heads "as good as that place would be it is too far and besides, this isn't dawn of the dead." Danny nods "ok, seriously though we could hole up at our highschool, I mean think about it long hallways, small doors and windows," with yet another grin on his face "and food."

Deciding on the highschool danny, eric, and dustin head in the direction of the local Wal-Mart. "There are more zombies down the road danny, which way do we go," said Eric, scratching the back of his bald head danny points across another yard "we'll go this way and follow the railroad tracks all the way down to Wal-Mart from there we will go to the highschool and hole up." With another glance down the road danny turns to both of them ' in the meantime keep an eye out for the living and the non living got it?" Both eric and dustin nod "damn this day gets worse and worse," said eric with a sigh "well at least we're not zombies," said dustin. "You got me there," said eric, with that the three headed off toward the railroad tracks.


	5. One days walk, allies of the living

The journey for guns ended almost as soon as it began. "Damn," said danny as he peered down the railroad tracks. "What is it?" said eric, crouched behind the bushes danny crawled over to dustin and eric " their about forty fucking zombies on the damn tracks," said danny, eric looks up ahead "damn, cant we ever get a break." Oddly enough there was a sudden explosion down the tracks. The three get knocked off their feet by the force of the blast "what the hell was that," asked eric, wide eyed. Danny got up and crouched behind the bushes yet again "there gone, the zombies where blown to bits," said danny, dustin and eric crouched next to danny "do you see who did it," said dustin. Danny shook his head and stood up "are you ok," he said, dustin and eric look at each other "yeah were ok," said dustin. Walking onto the remainder of the railroad tracks danny and eric suddenly froze "hey what's going on," said dustin. Out of the line of view dustin doesn't see the some odd number of guns aimed at them.

Prepared to fire, the soldiers took careful aim towards the three. Suddenly gunfire filled the air. Slowly shuffling behind danny, eric, and dustin where an assortment of fresh and old zombies, with expert aim the soldiers managed to shoot all of the zombies without wounding the teens. Later on as the soldiers escorted the three friends to a military checkpoint the soldiers looked at them with grudging respect. One soldier in particular walked beside them and asked, "how have you three managed to survive this long with no guns?" Danny looked at the soldier with a stern gaze "we had these," he said as he removed the battle-axe and sword from their sheaths. The soldier laughed at them and said "you mean to tell me you fought zombies and lived with a bunch of show swords and axes," with a long feral growl danny quickly jabbed the axe underneath the laughing soldier's throat "yeah, we did now I suggest you cut the bullshit and get moving, its getting darker and trust me you don't want to be caught out side at night with these things."

The soldier's face went from joking to serious in no time "id advise you to remove that axe before I but a bullet into you," he said with a menacing voice. Sadly for the soldier his commanding officer was standing behind him when he said this "solider," said the officer, the soldier immediately stood at attention "sir," said the soldier with a salute. "These boys have probably been through hell and back and yet you on the other hand are a freshy from boot without a lick of experience," said the officer with a stern gaze at the soldier.

"Damn I'm exhausted," said dustin, not realizing it all three began to feel the effects of their long day seep into them light fog over a lake. "Don't rub it in," said eric with a grimace." "Both of you be quiet, don't you see where and who were with," said danny "for right now were safe so don't be too content these types of luck never last long." The group of soldiers and the three friends reached their base in a matter of minutes. Bodies of dead soldiers and zombies alike littered the ground "damn zombies came at us from nowhere," said a burly soldier walking off to the left of danny "we started with fifty men and lost twenty in the firefight." Danny nodded "Eric over there, the one with the blonde streaks, lost his whole family first out," with a nod toward dustin he said" his family is missing and mine has disappeared."

The soldier nodded "you must be some tough guys to fight with just swords and axe," danny nodded and showed the axe to the soldier " it wasn't easy but we managed," said danny. The soldier looked at danny and his friends and said "Its all too true for a lot of us now, huh soldiers?" The soldiers around him nodded and said in unison "yes sir." Arriving at the main command the three friends where escorted to the commanding officer to recall their story. Several hours later the friends finally managed to get some sleep. As fitful and nightmarish as it was they knew they needed it for the real nightmares ahead.


	6. The beginning of the war

Bolting upright from the sound of gunfire Danny's hands instantly goes for the knife in his pocket. "Dustin, Eric get up trouble," said Danny as he stood and put on his boots. Dusting and Eric both get their shoes on and equip their weapons as the commanding officer bursts into their tent. "You three need to get up here now, theirs some serious fighting outside and me might have to retreat," said the officer. All four leave the tent as the retreat commands are issued. Eric looks at the officer "where are we going now," said Eric " were to run," said the officer as he loads his M16 with a fresh clip.

As the four run through the camp Danny peers into a tent and says" hold up a second," and walks into the tent. Dustin looks back and says, " what are you doing?" Danny walks out of the tent with a shotgun and three pistols and three satchels filled with ammo for all "I'm getting us backup." Quickly dispersing the pistols, one for himself, Dustin, Eric, Danny loads his shotgun "I get the shotgun." Holstering the shotgun between his shoulder blades, besides his battle-axe, they continue to run out of the camp.

Several soldiers flee from the camp after the orders, some where fortunate other, however, where not. Screams and sporatic gunfire blare through the air "there where hundreds of the bastards," said the officer as they run into the woods. After several hours of running they were fully exhausted. Sitting down on the ground or against trees Danny looks over at the officer "so what's your name?" The officer looks up "my name is Dane Wilkens, been in the army for ten years till now." Danny nods, " so what's been the military situation in all this" Dane looks at Danny " ever since this started we've been hard pressed, nearly all of our allies backed out due to this outbreak in their countries; more bases than I care to say fell in a matter of minutes due to the flow of bitten." In a twisted since of humor Danny nods "of our soldiers in Iraq, their pinned down in remote bases, our troops in South Korea fell from an attack by North Korea and an outbreak in South Korea." Dane's head droops "were lost, everywhere we're falling back or dying." Danny stands up and looks out into the woods "its about midday so we can travel further and no we're not lost, we are right here fighting for our lives so all in all where very much still in the fight." Extending his hand to Dane he looks at Eric, "how you holding up man " Eric stands and glances over his shoulder "fine, just want to kill some stiffs instead of running."

Sometime later Dane catches sight of a barn "hey, found a possible place to sleep for the night." Looking into the barn Danny sees about ten stiffs in various states of decomposition "where not the only ones who've been here or are here." As it turns out the stiffs where the inhabitants, looking down at one Dustin looks at the massive hole in its head "she killed herself rather than be a stiff," Eric nods "hell I would to." Danny nods and looks at Dane " think this place is safe to rest for the night?" "We'll have to close and barricade the door and post a watch at the top of the barn but yeah is should."

Later that day they come a cross a group of militia. "You guys look like you've been through hell," said a militiaman all four-nodded Danny and Dane look at the group of militia fighters. Noticing someone familiar in the crowd Danny runs up to a couple and bear hugs them both. "Mom, Dad," is all he manages to say as his mom starts crying "Danny, oh god Danny you survived." Releasing his parents Danny walks them back to his friends, nodding in Dane's direction "this is Dane, he is the last survivor of a military camp we came across, him and his men saved our asses." Danny's dad walks up to Dane "thank you for saving my son." Dane shakes his head "he would have survived on his own, believe me they've been in a few fights with the stiffs." Later that night they told their story. Many years passed, the militia grew and time progressed now is time for war. The war of Reckoning.


End file.
